Vollenweider

Fakultäten » Medizinische Fakultät » Psychiatrische Universitätsklinik » Affektive Erkrankungen und Allgemeinpsychiatrie Zürich Ost, Klinik für » Prof. Dr. Daniel Hell (emeritiert) » Vollenweider

Completed research project

Title / Titel	The monotonic dependency of prepulse inhibition of the acoustic startle reflex on the intensity of the startle-eliciting stimulus.
PDF	Abstract (PDF, 14 KB)
Summary / Zusammenfassung	Prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the acoustic startle reflex is a translational behavioural paradigm for the assessment of sensorimotor gating deficit which has been demonstrated in a number of neuropsychiatric conditions. PPI refers to the reduction of the reflexive startle response to a 'pulse' stimulus when its presentation is shortly preceded by a weak 'prepulse' stimulus. We have recently examined the expression of PPI as a function of the startle-eliciting 'pulse' stimulus intensity in mice and in humans. One major discrepancy that emerged was the finding that healthy human subjects, unlike normal mice, did not show a clear monotonic reduction of PPI magnitude (as indexed by % reduction in startle reactivity) with increasingly intense pulse stimulus. This lack of correspondence between species may potentially weaken the translational power of the PPI paradigm. Here, we re-examined this issue in 31 healthy subjects across three levels of pulse stimulus intensity (95, 105 and 115 dB).
Publications / Publikationen	Csomor PA, Yee BK, Quednow BB, Stadler RR, Feldon J, Vollenweider FX. 2006. The monotonic dependency of prepulse inhibition of the acoustic startle reflex on the intensity of the startle-eliciting stimulus. Behav Brain Res 174(1):143-150.
Keywords / Suchbegriffe	Prepulse inhibition; Intensity; Sensorimotor gating; Startle; Human
Project leadership and contacts / Projektleitung und Kontakte	Dipl. Natw. ETH Philipp Csomor csomor@bli.uzh.ch Prof. Dr. med. Franz Vollenweider (Project Leader) vollen@bli.uzh.ch
Funding source(s) / Unterstützt durch	Foundation NARSAD (USA), Stiftung für Klinische Neuro-Psychiatrische Forschung,Bern
In collaboration with / In Zusammenarbeit mit	Prof. J. Feldon, Dr. B. Yee, Laboratory of Behavioural Neurobiology, ETH Zurich Switzerland
Duration of Project / Projektdauer	Jan 2006 to Dec 2006